Can't Print FM15 generated PDFs! Oh-no!

Just upgraded the users to FM15 clients (windows). Still on a FM14 FM Server (mac).

We just found out that the FileMaker 15 clients generates PDFs (such as a order quote) which can *not* print! No error message - it goes through the motions of normal print dialogs (in Adobe Reader) and it briefly appears (as usual) in the printer queue and goes away. It just seems like it should print. I can immediately pull up any other PDFs and they print.

I can inspect the .pdf, in Adobe Reader DC, and printing is "Allowed" in the security settings.

I first noticed this the other day when my FileMaker developer (Mac FileMaker 15 client, stand-alone file), generated a invoice PDF and we could not print it either. He resent it using his FM14, and it printed.

As a work-around, in Adobe Reader DC, there is a print option called "Print as Image" which made it to print. I'm theorizing that the FM15 PDF is slightly corrupt in some fashion. The problem is we can't be telling all our customers to do this over and over again.

FM Pro 15 is now producing compessed files much smaller than FM Pro 14 - which is nice. See attached.

Using a test Windows 10 computer, I produced two PDF files. FM Pro 14's resulting PDF is 157KB in size and the FM Pro 15's resulting PDF is 91KB. This efficiency is somehow causing *most* Windows Adobe users to not be able to print. I (a windows 10 user) can print the both PDFs.

Mac Adobe users are able to print both PDFs as well. I'm now theorizing that I may have outdated HP Printer drivers on the user workstations. I'll find out and let everyone know.

the pdf engine has been changed in v15 (in 14.06 as well). Known issues: Corrupt pdf (in our case when adding pdfs to existing ones) when creating them from a layout with the classic theme - or due to created pdf couldn't be openend, not just when printing

Althoguh not sure if it's the same issue here: What font are You using? Do You have an older classic theme for the print-layout?

Edit (hate that iOS-track-pad thing that eats letters-paragraphs..)

'when creating them from a layout with the classic theme - or due to *old fonts. Here, the* created pdf couldn't be openend, not just when printing'

I had no trouble printing either of your pdf files (MacOSX El Capitan). I would suspect printer level problems too—although these may be being triggered by a different output from FM15. In the past I have occasionally had problems with PDF files downloaded from websites (tickets and the like) which refused to print on my ageing GCC laser printer but printed OK in my Epson inkjet. My take is that there may be nothing wrong/corrupt with the PDFs that FM15 is generating, just an incompatibility with older software. Test it yourself on another printer if possible.

As I feared, FM 15.0.2 was released with the same PDF problem. Although, these new PDFs are much smaller in size, some windows printer spoolers can't cope with the new PDFs but some can. It's hit and miss. I've attached the same PDF record document produced out of FM 14.0.5 and FM 15.0.2.

I am jumping in here. We have the very same problem at a larger customer on some (smaller) models of HP printers. Most client OS are Windows 7 (x64). Updating to Filemaker Pro 15.0.3 does not solve the problem. One example of a printer is a HP LaserJet Pro M402dn.

When printing from a PDF generated by FMP14, I see the job appearing in the printer queue, disappearing, but nothing is printing.

I resolved the issue by selecting the HP Universal PCL 6 printer driver instead of the model specific driver.

We have the same problem on some PCs, we've 1 situation where 2 PCs in the same office running the same Windows OS printing to the same printer has 1 that will print and one that has to use the print as image workaround.

Yup, same printer drivers, both been uninstalled and reinstalled using the same installers.

Have just left one of them printing as image as we haven't been able to resolve the problem (they are a cloud customer, therefore we can only work remotely on their PCs and are not responsible for the setup).

Just for the record, I am having the same problem with one of my customers too. FM15.0v3, Windows 10. He cannot print to either of his HP Color Laser Jet Pro M25dw printers, but can to a HP Colour LaserJet CP3525n printer. I can also print them via Mac with no problems.

Our office of 40 FMP users just upgraded from 13v5 to 15v3. Clients and staff can no longer print their PDF documents. As said above, this issue is for the 32bit Windows version and some printers will work. There appears to be no difference between old classic layouts and new layouts. Font issues have been ruled out (even an empty layout page will not print).

The solution for my client was to update the printer drivers. Once that was done, the pdfs printed fine. So I'd suggest first trying that, then consider a more generic printer driver as a less desirable option.

Has FMI made any comments or suggestions to workarounds on this? I did not see any comments on this thread. This is not an isolated incident and causes a couple of my clients issues. Because if they send or email a PDF to a client, the client can't print the PDF either.

Funnily enough we have visited a client today and are shortly testing v16 on their system to see whether this resolves the same problem.

One thing to supplement Phil's recommendations; I believe FileMaker's official line to resolve this is to ensure the layout does not use the Classic theme and to change all layouts that do (which would only take us about 10-years).

the official line for printing or previewing a PDF that has been inserted into an interactive PDF is that this cannot currently be done in Windows. See my Issue report and their response. Please note that when I re-encountered this bug, I was using a brand new file created in FileMaker 16 on Windows 10.